Arlington Heights-based college district officers might have a look at hiring a lobbyist as talks round attainable tax offers for a proposed northwest suburban Chicago Bears stadium warmth up in Springfield.
At a Feb. 2 particular assembly of the Township High School District 214 Board of Education, board members agreed that “mega project legislation,” which may authorize monetary incentives for many years, stood to have a major affect on property tax income to help native colleges.
The Chicago Bears soccer group has signed a purchase order settlement to purchase the positioning of the previous Arlington International Racecourse — also referred to as Arlington Park — in Arlington Heights. The NFL crew has proposed a multibillion-dollar mixed-used growth on the website that would come with a newly constructed soccer stadium. The Bears would transfer from their longtime residence at Soldier Field on Chicago’s lakefront to the situation within the northwest suburb.
At the assembly, board members additionally agreed to contemplate Co-interim Superintendent Kenneth Arndt’s suggestion that the board rent a lobbyist in Springfield to symbolize the pursuits of the district, probably together with different close by college districts.
School District 214 enrolls greater than 11,900 college students throughout six excessive colleges, together with John Hersey High School in Arlington Heights and Buffalo Grove High School.
Arndt mentioned he was invested in sustaining working relationship with the village of Arlington Heights and helps the mission as a complete.
That mentioned, Arndt added, the implications of latest monetary incentives for the Bears or some other developer at Arlington Park could possibly be staggering for a college district like District 214, which depends closely on property taxes.
“This (legislation), if it’s poorly developed, will hurt D214 for almost 40 years,” he mentioned.
Proposed laws is just not but filed in Springfield, board lawyer Ares Dalianis mentioned. But he mentioned, based mostly on the knowledge that’s accessible, District 214 ought to contemplate hiring somebody to symbolize its pursuits within the state Legislature.
“Right now you’re on the outside looking in,” he advised the board. “That’s not a good place to be with something that has 40 years of consequence to it.”
District 214 can be one in all a number of college districts to be affected by any property tax incentives for the Bears or one other developer of the Arlington Park property. Palatine-based Community Consolidated School District 15 Superintendent Laurie Heinz wrote to Arlington Heights officers in summer season 2022 to oppose establishing a tax increment financing district to carry the Bears to the village, saying such a change may have a “potentially transformative” affect on space colleges.
Tax increment financing districts freeze the quantity paid to native taxing our bodies and direct taxes collected on any enhance in property worth towards growth for a time period.
According to Dalianis’ presentation, District 15, an elementary college district, covers the whole thing of the 326-acre racecourse space the place the Bears have proposed a stadium and mixed-use growth.
District 214 pulls property tax income from the decrease portion of the positioning, the place the racetrack and grandstand are at present situated. Township High School District 211, a highschool district based mostly in Palatine, takes income from the northern portion, the place the crew has proposed constructing the stadium itself.
Dalianis’ presentation to the SD214 board outlined a proposal that has been floated to create a brand new part of the Illinois property tax code that might permit builders spending greater than $500 million to freeze the property tax ranges in a given space for as much as 40 years if the internet hosting municipality deemed doing so would incur “a substantial public benefit.”
Instead of paying property taxes, Dalianis mentioned the idea gives for a cost in lieu of taxes, referred to as PILOT, {that a} developer would pay.
“But the special payment will be significantly less than what normal property taxes would be,” he mentioned. “That’s the incentive, that delta.”
In different communities, the thought of a cost in lieu of taxes has been floated as a strategy to generate income from tax-exempt establishments resembling hospitals and universities.
Dalianis provided Northwestern University in Evanston for example of a standing PILOT settlement the place funds to a metropolis are “essentially a proxy or a substitute for taxes.”
“Because so much of the property in Evanston is (tax) exempt and the university has many positive impacts, but it also draws on municipal resources as well … the university works out these arrangements with the city to pay for certain services that they could otherwise say ‘hey, we’re exempt, we don’t have to pay taxes.’”
Board President Bill Dussling cautioned that the laws was nonetheless in a state of flux however mentioned the district must be concerned because the invoice makes its means by the method in Springfield.
“We want to make sure we are at the table for when any discussion takes place about the effect of this project on us, and the dollars and finances relative to us,” he mentioned.
Arndt beneficial that the board rent a lobbyist, describing the transfer as a “short-term investment in a very long-term game.”
Dussling agreed and mentioned the Feb. 9 board assembly would come with an motion merchandise on hiring a lobbyist.
“We want to get an oar in the water,” he mentioned. “We don’t want to fight anybody. We want to be at the table and get consensus about what’s good for the students in this district.”
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Source: www.bostonherald.com